Winner - Story Contest for Driftmaster Crow Foot System

My dad's family grew up in a small town in north central Louisiana. My grandmother was almost 50 when she had my dad. My grandmother had a little brother, Uncle Lewis, that never had any kids. So my dad was kind of like his son. Well before my dad was born, my Great Uncle Lewis ran track at Louisiana tech (called Louisiana Poly-Tech at the time). He ran track from 1922-1925. I graduated from high school in 1987, and received a track and cross country scholarship to, you guessed it, Louisiana Tech. I had a very competitive freshman campaign, but the only major award I won was a college letter. My Great Uncle Lewis actually retired from Standard Oil and moved to Ruston, Louisiana, the home of Louisiana tech.

The summer after my freshman year at Tech, I grew very close to Uncle Lewis. He taught me how to play golf and we became best friends, although he was in his late 80s at the time. My sophomore year at Tech, I won the high point award on the Tech track team. Uncle Lewis won this same award in 1923.

My coach knew how much Uncle Lewis meant to me and he invited Uncle Lewis to our track banquet to present me with this award. It was truly one of the most special moments in my life.

Uncle Lewis always told me that the one race he never won that he always wanted to win was the mile at the conference meet. I happen to win the mile at our conference meet in the spring of my sophomore year. Uncle Lewis was not able to travel to the track meet, but the first place I went when I got back to Tech was to his house to show him my gold medal. He was so proud of me. It made me feel good to see him smile.

The summer after my sophomore year, Uncle Lewis died in his sleep. I was asked to speak at his funeral. I was so honored. After I barely got through my speech about how close we had become and how many memories we had shared on the golf course and how many track and field stories we had told, I stepped down from the podium and reached into my suit pocket and pulled out my gold medal from the conference mile, and softly placed it in his hands. I gathered my composure and then the last thing I said to Uncle Lewis was "Don’t worry, I’ll get another one!!"

I actually won two more gold medals in the mile at our next two conference meets. I know Uncle Lewis was looking down and cheering me on every step of the way.

This is a pic of me right after I won that first gold medal in the conference mile. I don't miss the medal, but I sure do miss Uncle Lewis, every day....docwaldo



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